The Lakers fell to the Nuggets, 111-99, after blowing out the Pelicans last night. They are now 0-3 on the second game of a back-to-back.
After a quick 8-0 start by the Lakers, it showed that the Lakers were on the tail end of a back-to-back. They looked tired in the first half; it was like the Nuggets were on Windows 8.1 while the Lakers were on Windows 95.
Still, the Lakers had a pretty strong third quarter, holding Denver to under 29 percent shooting in that period. So from time to time, you’ll get some good defense from the Lakers. Unfortunately, the Lakers couldn’t stop Timofey Mozgov throughout the contest; he ended with 23 points, nine rebounds, and four blocks. We all know the Lakers’ penchant of letting role players have all-star nights; Mozgov was that guy tonight. Wilson Chandler, who played his first game this season, also made some big threes in the fourth that helped close the door on the Lakers.
Denver seemed to score at will inside the paint. They scored 22 of their 33 first quarter points in the painted area. The Nuggets would end up having 60 of those points at the end.
Pau Gasol had his best scoring output this season with 25 points (on 27 shots). But we now know he’s dealing with a strained foot to add to that upper respiratory infection. Jordan Hill helped the Lakers get some energy back in the second half; he had 18 points and 15 rebounds. Steve Blake played another excellent floor game with 15 points and 11 assists. But once again, like they did against the Pelicans, they let this one get away in the fourth quarter despite all the sloppiness that happened in the first three quarters. As much as they had that effort in the second half, it would’ve been nice if they were able to take advantage of those second, third, and fourth chances. And Nick Young, you probably don’t want to inbound the ball to somebody who has his back turned.
The Lakers have been wildly up and down thus far but with this level of talent from that team, that is to be expected. They go back to Staples Center and play against the struggling Memphis Grizzlies on Friday (on a personal note, Friday is my birthday!). L.A. starts a four-game home stand (and FOUR DAYS off coming up) then. They’d better take advantage as the Lakers are 1-4 on the road so far.
Warren Wee Lim says
Advance Happy Birthday Rey Rey!
Rey Moralde says
Thanks, Warren!
Ken says
Watching Clips it’s becoming more and more obvious they are going to the finals.
It’s making me ill as Lakers can’t win 2 in a row.
Not a good year .
Renato Afonso says
Well, it was a SEGABABA in Denver. Let’s just say what it is… a schedule loss. Moving on…
Treylake says
MDA’s comment about Nash’s value based on past performance is comical. No one is questioning whether Nash was a great player, issue is whether Nash can physically contribute to wins this season? The answer is no. Nash can’t defend well enough, to slow opposing PG’s. Nash’s best contribution this season would be to get a medical retirement wiping his $9.7 million salary off the Lakers books for next season, freeing additional cap space.
Nash on the floor will hurt the Lakers, much more than help them. Nash’s career is over as a consistently effective player. Hopefully, Nash will accept reality before appearing in 10 games this season and seek medical retirement.
BigCitySid says
Was Kenneth Faried auditioning for that New York Knick starting 4 spot? 21 points & 13 rebounds in Denver’s win over the Lakers. With season averages of 10.6ppg/ 9.1rpg (career 11.0/8.6) Faried joins the growing list of players ( Kevin Martin, Ricky Rubio, Klay Thompson, & Monte Ellis) who are posting some of their season best numbers vs the Lakers.
Team “D” allowing 105.8 ppg (27th place) combined with -6.5 pt diff (28th place) says it all. š
Tra says
Team āDā allowing 105.8 ppg (27th place) ..
—
And this is the exact reason why myself, and others within this FB&G Community, predicted that this would be a long, strenuous season for our Lakers.
West Coast Ram says
Does anyone know what the last three years league record is for teams playing in back to back games? For a league that is so consumed by image it is beyond me why they would ever schedule back to back games or worse, schedule a team to travel and play on consecutive nights. If I were teams I would do what the Spurs did last year and just sit my star players in every back to back situation until the league addressed the situation.
sufian says
Lamar to the rescue!
Shaun says
haha Lamar
Does everyone think that MDA will keep Hill in the Starting line up?
It has been a great 2 games but you never know with MDA.
Do you think hill will get anywhere close to 30 min per game regularly?
C.Hearn says
Even though the Lakers lost against Denver, I am happy with the effort that they put forth on the floor. The problem with a team that is deficient in talent, is that they extend double to triple the energy to get a win. Arriving in Denver at 4am and probably getting settled in their rooms at 5am with a two hour time difference, is a valid reason to be a step slow. Expect the players to adjust to their new found playing time as the year progresses. They’ll get their NBA legs sometime in December. Remember that Blake and Gasol are the only two players that played starter minutes last year. The remaining players have never faced the opposing team players, thus they don’t know the other team’s offensive and defensive tendencies.
Stabilizing the starting lineup and remaining consistent with the bench rotations will be key going forward. This team does not have one single player that would make a team the Lakers face, have to devise defensive strategies in order to play them.
I’d like to see more of Ryan Kelly and Elias Harris and less of Shawne Williams. Williams has one skill set (shooting 3’s) and thus he has some value on the team as the 12th-13th player. Ryan Kelly is truly an interesting player, as their is just an air about him that is intriguing.
I wonder what management will do when the Lakers continue not having sale outs and the Clippers continue to have sale outs.
#I’mnotawagoneer #AllDayLakers
david h says
c.hearn brings up an interesting point: what management will do when the Lakers continue not having sale outs and the Clippers continue to have sale outs.
helmet night, works for baseball. mini basketballs w/laker logo might be one source and right up jeanne buss’s alley i’d say.
also interested to see ryan kelly get some burn.
in a related aside, anyone else notice shawne williams moves like he wears leaded shoes? still waiting on him to have a breakout game. or any game to his game.
ok, will stop picking on him, for now. he’s not a nose. will have to start picking on the nose that picks his playing time: coach d; hello?
back to the tinkering game..
Go lakers
MannyP says
David – The issue for the Lakers is renewal of season tickets, which correspond to seat licenses/rights the Lakers have over the Arena – and even in the ugliest of times the wait list for each of those seats runs pretty deep. I’m sure the Lakers get a piece of every ticket sold by AEG, but non-season-ticket sales for the most part go to AEG. So, in short, non-sell outs impact AEG financially more than the Lakers. The real impact to the Lakers is PR.
Fern says
Im sick and tired listening to “effort” and the parade of cliches that comes with it. Last night we should not lost that game, we faced a Denver team without Mcgee, without Galinari and we let a 3rd string center have a career night,and allow 60 points inside? Nah, sorry , we were facing a team that is worse than ours for a change and got blownout. If i were Pau or Kaman i be hiding in shame.Thats whats lost us the game. We can analize and over analize any minutae about the game but it all come down to letting a scrub beat us.